Key Weird 03; Key Witch Read online

  One day some big suits came in his room and showed him some shiny badges in wallets. They took Jeremy’s computer, money, and Jeremy with them. The only thing left on his desk was the beer he’d been drinking. A little while later Jeremy came back and sat at his desk and looked real unhappy. I felt so sorry for him I almost wished I hadn’t peed in his beer.

  ∨ Key Witch ∧

  8

  Taco Bob

  The sky was feeling a little under the weather. Maybe it was just gas, or one of those 24 hour bugs. Something down there just didn’t feel right. Might as well just tough it out, when you’re the sky you can’t call in sick. It wasn’t helping matters any with the sun showing up all bright-eyed and rested after a day off.

  Josephine slipped the piece of fur in the pocket of her shorts when she saw Lydia walking toward the front desk.

  “Did the Morgans come in yet? I expected them in here this morning, hope they aren’t going to be another no-show.”

  “C-called. Be here t-tonight. D-driving down from Mi-Miami. Rented a c-convertible.”

  Lydia picked up the stack of mail from behind the desk for a look. “Can’t say I blame them much, nice day for it. Not a cloud in the sky. Here’s another letter from our friends at MegaDrug. Sure are some persistent bastards. I thought maybe they’d get the picture when I called and made it very clear we weren’t selling.”

  Josephine finished what she was doing on her laptop and shut the computer down. She didn’t stutter on the internet. Lydia started through the rest of the mail and plopped down in the chair behind the desk as soon as her sister stood up. Shift change.

  “You going to check on your patient? I looked in on him an hour ago and he seemed to be resting quietly. Of course, that was after I took his head out of the toilet and drug him back over to the bed. Your latest batch of hangover remedy doesn’t seem to be quite ready for the general public, if you ask me. That is unless several hours of the dry heaves is supposed to be part of the cure.”

  Josephine smiled. “I m-make it a little s-stronger when I t-try it out on J-Jeremy. See if t-there’s any s-side effects.”

  “Well, just try not to kill him. Okay?”

  Josephine stuck out her lower lip and was about to go into a pout when the front door opened. A tall, thin, weathered-looking man dressed like a sport fisherman and wearing a cowboy hat came in.

  “Afternoon, ladies.” The man tipped his hat as he came over to the front desk. “Ya’ll the ones left this picture at my houseboat a few days ago?”

  The sisters looked at each other, then at the picture the man put on the desk before shaking their heads no.

  “It might have been our sister Consuelo, she’s been working the marina area. Have you seen the person in the picture?”

  The man took off his hat and scratched his head a little. “Well, I might know her, but I’d be interested in knowing how ya’ll come to be looking for her.”

  The man had the full attention of the two women. Lydia set the stack of mail down and Josephine put her laptop on a shelf behind the desk. They were ready.

  “That’s our older sister. We’re pretty sure she was here in Key West a few months ago, but no one’s seen her since. We lost touch with her years ago and…”

  The front door burst open. Consuelo stomped in with a tanned young man slung over her shoulder. She kicked the door closed ignoring her sisters and the fisherman and headed for her room with a determined look in her eyes. The young man looked up as they passed and gave a shy smile and a little shrug.

  “Consuelo!”

  Not even a break in her stride, she just kept on stomping through the lobby. Lydia tried again.

  “Consuelo, it’s important.”

  She stopped and turned slowly. Her face was flushed and there was fire in the eyes that had gone cat-like.

  “It’s about Sara. Just tell your little friend you’ll play with him later.”

  Consuelo grudgingly walked back towards the front door and dropped the young man on one of the couches in the lobby. She gave him a long lick on the face, then laid him down and covered him with cushions from the other sofa. When she was sure her snack was safe from other predators, she came over and stood facing the others with her arms crossed. “This better be good. I got plans.”

  “Yes dear, we can see that.” Lydia rolled her eyes. “I believe this man was about to tell us something about Sara when you returned from safari.”

  The fisherman was taking it all in, but he was smiling.

  “Name’s Taco Bob, ladies. I been out fishing a few days, and when I came back there was this picture with the phone number on it. I did a little asking around, then came by here.”

  Consuelo picked up on it. “Okay, yeah, I left that with some guy on a houseboat. What have you got for us? Have you seen our sister?”

  “I ain’t seen her in a while, but I do know her. I asked some mutual friends if they seen her lately, but she’s been gone like y’all said, for a while now.” He obviously realized this wasn’t playing too good. “I kinda got a hunch where she might be though.”

  ♦

  Louie couldn’t believe what he just saw. Some little blond number just walked in the hotel with a guy over her shoulder like he was a stuffed toy. Guy must have had 40 pounds on her at least. This was some kind of crazy town. No wonder people called it Key Weird.

  Last time he was in town on business was a pretty simple job. One of those new Internet companies for losers who want to get even came up with some work.

  Some asshole really pissing you off on the net? You can send a pointed email, or if you got a gold card, you can send someone like Louie to deliver a personal message. Louie liked the way it worked. Company gives you an address, half the money up front, and usually a picture of the one getting the attention.

  Job was a breeze. Found the guy – fucker was up in the middle of the night on the net, as usual. Knock on the door. Guy won’t open up – he’s a real smart guy. Tell him you’re the police, Detective Brown, someone seen prowling around the area, just checking to make sure everyone’s all right. Door opens. Drop a sap on the guy’s head and he lays on the floor so you can break his fingers one at a time with a ball-peen hammer. Neat. Clean. Guy gets the message not to use his keyboard for a while. Everybody’s happy.

  At least he got a decent parking space for a change. Sitting in the heat with no air-conditioning was playing hell with his heat rash though. Wasn’t a cloud in the sky either, usually some kind of clouds in the afternoon, get a little break from the sun. Gustov said it looked like they should be getting the word anytime. Louie was ready for some action.

  ♦

  After some further introductions, Taco Bob gave the three sisters a rundown on what he knew about Sara’s past, which wasn’t really all that much, he realized. That she had once been in the same cult as a lady friend of his was still a little unsettling for him.

  “First time I laid eyes on her was way on back up in the Everglades swamp. She was staying in a little cabin and poling around in one of those dugout canoes like the Indians used to have around there. Acted like she been doing it all her life.”

  The sisters looked a little uncomfortable with this and were trading glances. He noticed they were also giving each other little covert signs with their hands and feet. Consuelo went over to the couch and dug up her new friend. She whispered in his ear and he slipped out the door smiling. The taller one who seemed to be in charge named Lydia waited for her sister to rejoin them.

  “Excuse me for asking, but how did you happen to be back up in that swamp yourself?”

  “I was looking for a old fella used to live in a cabin there, but he was gone. Sara said she hadn’t seen hide nor hair of him either.”

  After sending her friend away, the one called Consuelo was standing off to the side so he had to look away from the other two women to keep an eye on her. It was making it harder to notice their covert signals. Consuelo jumped in next.

  “So you think she’s st
ill out there in the swamp? That was the last time you saw her?”

  “No, actually she followed me on back to Key West in her skiff. Last time I seen her was here on the island the evening we came back.”

  “She had her own skiff? Like a powerboat?” The little blonde looked like she couldn’t believe it. “We’ve done a lot of things, but never tried to run a powerboat over open water like that. Are you sure?”

  “Yep. Seemed to handle it pretty good too. I reckon she had some expert instruction.” He gave a big wink, but the women were so busy all trying to sign to each other at the same time that none of them seemed to notice. Except Josephine.

  “W-where do you th-th-think S-Sara is then?”

  Taco Bob was a little taken aback that the dark-haired beauty had such a bad stutter. “Oh, I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t go on back up there in the swamp again. She kinda seemed to like it there.”

  Josephine frowned big. She obviously didn’t like the idea of her older sister wanting to live in a swamp.

  “W-why was s-s-she in t-the s-swamp?”

  He didn’t really want to get into telling these young ladies their long-lost sister might be a few ants short of a picnic.

  “I reckon you might want to ask her about all that if you meet up with her your own self. She’s got her own ideas about some things.” He got a little smile started up for the sisters. “I can tell you this though, the last I seen her it looked like she was going to be doing all right financially.”

  As he thought it would, this started off a whole new set of subtle signing between the young women.

  “Actually, I been wanting to take a ride up there again sometime, see if I could maybe find out something about my old friend who used to live up there.” There was a flurry of foot movements and hand signs. “Weren’t for this big storm coming I might could be talked into taking a look tomorrow. Probably want to wait a few days now though.”

  The signals between the sisters stopped. All three stared right at him and said in unison, “What storm?”

  ♦

  Jeremy was watching the weather channel in his room in the back of the hotel. He had recovered sufficiently to turn on the television on his way back from his latest trip to the bathroom. Now he was lying in bed trying to decide if it was worth the effort to find the remote so he could change the channel. He needed to tell Josephine to go a little easy on the jalapeño peppers in her hangover remedy next time. He wouldn’t be surprised if his farts didn’t eventually burn a hole in his underwear.

  He peeked out of the sheets when he heard the guy on the tube saying something about a tropical storm. There was some weather geek, who looked like he spent way too much time sitting around indoors, pointing at a swirl of colors down below Cuba. Guy was talking about Florida and saying something about a possible Hurricane Watch while trying to cover his ass with the usual jive about computer models. The time lapse thing made it look like it was heading for Florida all right.

  Jeremy decided this could be some serious shit, and probably required immediate and sustained action on his part in preparing for the storm. Not to mention the opportunities for ducking out of work and scamming a buck or two.

  He was sound asleep before the next commercial.

  ♦

  There was a little television in the lobby. Taco Bob and the three sisters were sitting in front of it waiting for the Tropical Storm Report to come around. He was offered something to drink but declined politely. Consuelo brought him a beer anyway when she came back with one for herself.

  “Thanks. I was just telling your sisters here the reports I seen earlier had this coming over Cuba and getting on up to hurricane strength. Them folks is wrong on these storms a lot, but if it gets to being a bad one, and comes this way, there’s gonna be a lotta folks wanting to get outta Dodge here all of a sudden. Those few staying are gonna be mighty busy with getting their property ready for the blow.” He took a long pull on his beer. “It ain’t the best of times for a boat ride either.”

  The storm report came on and said the storm had slowed its forward movement, but was now a hurricane. Hurricane Watches were expected to be issued for the Keys and points north within 24 hours.

  The sisters knew about hurricanes, but never had to deal with one before. Consuelo killed her beer and crumpled the can while she walked over to the window. “Sure doesn’t look like any storm’s coming. There isn’t a cloud in the sky.”

  “Yep, from what I seen, storm kinda pulls all the clouds down to it like that sometimes. I imagine you take a good look down south from here, you might see the edge of some serious looking weather.”

  Consuelo was still by the window.

  “I’d go take a look from the widow’s walk, but we don’t have one.”

  Lydia dismissed that with a wave of her hand and looked Taco Bob in the eye.

  “What if this storm goes into the Everglades? If Sara’s there, I wouldn’t imagine a little cabin in the swamp is going to be very safe.”

  She had a point.

  “No, I don’t reckon it would be. Of course I got no way of knowing if she went on back to the ‘Glades, or if she’s there now.” He was giving it some thought. “That skiff she had was a rental. It might be a good idea to ask them folks at the boat rental place just this side of the big marina if they know anything.”

  Everyone looked at Consuelo. “I was there showing Sara’s picture but I didn’t get anything. Maybe I’ll give it another try. Like right now.” She started for the door, then stopped. “Come on, Bugs, I got an idea.” The two young women were out the door without another word.

  The head meteorologist came on the television with the latest projection – looked like the hurricane was going to continue north and cross Cuba in the next 48 hours. The guy mentioned Key West is only 90 miles from Cuba.

  When the report was over, Taco Bob looked away from the television. Lydia wasn’t saying anything, but was looking at him. He knew what the look meant.

  “We’ll see what your sisters find out down at the boat rental place. If it’s going to happen, it’s going to have to be early-on first thing tomorrow morning, and hopefully get back before dark. Looks like the water’s going to be rough as a cob after that, and I ain’t wanting to be riding out no storms in the ‘Glades.” He got a slow nod from Lydia. “I reckon one of ya’ll is going to want to go along if I’m not mistaken.”

  ♦

  The sisters got a cab to the marina. Consuelo remembered the fat Cuban woman working there from when she’d passed through before. She showed the picture to her again.

  “No, sorry honey. I don’t remember seeing her.”

  “Her name’s Sara. She might have rented a boat here a few months ago.”

  “Oh, well, I’ve only been here for – ”

  “Anyone else here? Someone who might have been around a few months ago?”

  Both sister’s were giving the woman their full-intensity stares now. The big woman made a break for the manager’s office.

  The manager was a big dark man in his 40’s with a shoe-brush moustache. Coming out the door he looked pissed about being disturbed, but brightened when he saw two good-looking young women standing in his showroom of seriously marked-up marine supplies. Maybe thought he had some hot little vacationers needing some personal instruction on one of the rentals. His smile faded when he got close.

  “We’re looking for this woman. She may have rented a boat from here a few months ago.”

  He took a good look at the picture that was held up to him, then at the two young women staring intensely at him. He took a step back. A quick flash of something in his eyes. Fear.

  He put the smile back on, but to Consuelo he read guilty of every crime known to man.

  “Sorry girls, I haven’t…”

  Holding the picture in front of the manager’s chest, Consuelo came to his side and whispered softly, “Look again. Maybe you’ll remember.”

  He looked at the picture in her hand. When he looked
up, Josephine was on her toes and in his face. He started to say something about not seeing anyone who – but there was more whispering in his ear.

  “Doesn’t she have interesting eyes? Very deep eyes I would say. You could go very far down in those eyes.” He started to nod just as Consuelo slipped behind him and softly put an iron lock on his head with the palms of her hands while gently holding his eyelids open with her fingers.

  “Just relax and look into those soft eyes. Can you feel it?”

  She knew what it was like to look into her sister’s eyes. Two pools of black liquid pulling you into a void that slowly filled with an almost physical presence of pure fear that probed your body, searching, until it was inside you and then started to eat its way back out.

  When he started a low, trembling wail, Consuelo began to whisper again.

  “The woman in the picture was here, wasn’t she? Where is she now?”

  The man said something that sounded like, ‘please’. They sat him in a chair. He had his hands over his face and looked up for just a second when some knuckles popped him on the top of his head.

  “She bought one of my rental boats from me a few months ago. I don’t know who she is or where she went.”

  Josephine looked at her sister and shrugged. Consuelo wanted more.

  “Why didn’t you just tell us that? There must be something else.”

  The man was crying now, he wouldn’t take his hands from his face.

  “She paid me for the boat with Spanish treasure. Gold coins.”

  The back door opened and the fat woman came in followed closely by a sun-scorched man with a mean leer and a big wrench.

  “They’re doing something to Rudy! I think they’re trying to rob him!”

  The lug made a swing at Consuelo with the wrench. She grabbed the wrench with one hand, some wrist with the other, and spun the big guy toward the front door. Police officer Thomas Sanchez, responding to the disturbance call, opened the door just in time to see the little blonde throwing a couple hundred pounds of outboard mechanic at him. Both men went down hard.